You will notice that the vagina diagram below is titled: vulva. Vulva is the name given to all of what you can see on the face of the vagina. Vagina is the canal inside (difficult to draw).

Clarifying Terms

This project is titled, vagina vérité® because vagina is what I've always called everything down there. Many women I know do the same. Others call it: pussy, coochie, snatch, crotch - one woman wrote in that she calls hers a cheeseburger...

Actually, I'd never really given much thought to the vulva. Like most women, I rarely looked at it, and it rarely came up in conversation. In my world, the vulva was even less visible than the than the vagina. That is, until I begin this project.

vaginaverite.com is a looking inward to our perceptions and assumptions. It's a forum for the telling of our stories, consider the vulva the cover of your book.

It is important to know what's what (check out all the parts of the vulva - did you know there were so many?) - but in a conversation about personal experience, getting literary is a given. Some women have taken to caling it a vajayjay.

vagina vérité®, is a book of vulva photographs. It is an exploration into unfamiliar territory. By publishing it, I hope to provide a collective mirror, to start conversation - the book will present the threshold, leading you in to yOur vagina story.

Please note: All vulvas are different. This diagram is one rendition of a vulva for the purpose of diagramming its parts. It is not what a "normal" vulva looks like. There is no such thing as a normal vulva—every woman is unique.

The print version of the vulva diagram is a pdf. You will need Acrobat Reader to view it. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, click on the Icon. It will take you to Adobe.com, where you can download it. It's free.

Clitoral & Labial Size "...Women have a vagina, this is what we are told in school and in life. The fact that girls and women have a vulva is seldom mentioned..." read on at the-clitoris.com

The Red Spot "...The Red Spot is a gathering place for the knowledge and experience that women gain about their periods over time, not a medical resource. I am not a doctor and do not give out medical advice, nor do I guarantee the effectiveness of any home remedies found in these pages..." check out outside parts

about the hymen "...Many people are under the impression that the hymen is located within the vagina. It is not. It's part of the vulva, the external genital organs. It's located outside the vagina. The hymen is a layer of tissue..." check out coolnurse.com's article on the hymen